점안 지도가 항녹내장 안약의 처방 순응도에 미치는 영향

Effect of Eye Drop Education on Adherence to Glaucoma Medication

Glaucoma is a potentially blinding chronic disease requiring life-long commitment to medical therapy. Failure to adhere to anti-glaucoma treatment may lead to disease progression and visual loss. This study surveyed the adherence to glaucoma eye drop and eye drop instillation technique of glaucoma patients and analyzed the improvement of the adher- ence and installation technique after patient education for eye drop instillation instructions. Collected responses were sta- tistically analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney test, Chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test, Spearman’s correlation coefficient, or one sample proportion test. The survey after patient education for proper eye drop instillation revealed that, even if the patients experienced the adverse effect of their eyes getting dry, they used the eye drop more regularly. They were better at instillation techniques like putting the eye drop inside the eye, and also avoiding applying too much med- ication or touching their eye with the eye drop bottle. Also, when the patients were divided into groups based on etiologic division, there was difference among groups regarding which category they answered has improved. The result showed improvement in adherence to glaucoma eye drop and eye drop instillation technique after patient education, implicating that patient education is an important aspect of eye care for glaucoma patient and helps them participate in the proper man- agement.